TCG first saw, on ZDNet, that C-SPAN was creating its own tech-savvy social networking site, called "Debate Hub." As ZDNet's Andrew Nusca explains:
The site allows users to follow the debate in near-real-time on their gadgets and simultaneously see how the Web is reacting to it. On the debate side, the site mashes up a transcript of the debate with video footage — sort of like the New York Times — and allows you to watch and share/embed clips of your choosing as the debate develops (it’s on a 10-minute delay).
Which is to say, Debate Hub has a lot in common with VoterWatch.org, mentioned in my previous post.
For his part, ZDNet's Nusca is enthused:
From what I’ve seen thus far — it’s tough, because the site won’t really heat up until the first scheduled debate (9:00PM EST Friday) — it’s a great resource and a really neat way to text, Twitter, blog and otherwise engage on debate night on a much grander scale. C-SPAN’s mission is to be in the public service, and it’s clearly doing so here — spotlighting the public discourse happening via mobile devices, with some fancy interactives for those who stop by.
And indeed, a look at DebateHub suggests that it's plenty cool.
But TCG can't help but think that there is more going on here than just C-SPAN-ish "public service." Don't get me wrong: I love C-SPAN, and I think that it is a public service, of the highest order. And so I welcome Debate Hub.
But the social-networking function is so powerful--and so lucrative--that TCG wonders if the cable companies, who finance C-SPAN and now Debate Hub, are also looking for a way in to the social-networking field.
And if that's the case, then Debate Hub is a pretty good way to start entering. Social networking, at its best, fulfills a function: It helps you do things that you are already doing, only better. By contrast, social networking, at its worst, is a distraction: You are bombarded with crap, and so it slows you down--it is not a utility, it's a disutility.
Linkedin.com is a good example of a social network that helps you network--if you wanna find old friends, old classmates, colleagues, etc., Linkedin offers a very efficient way to do just that. By contrast, Classmates.com is horrible--it's all spam and upsells and crap. Indeed, Classmates.com is one of the few web services that I have actively and enthusiastically UNSUBSCRIBED from, because it was so lousy.
The point here is that a social network should be organized around some purpose. Linkedin is a genuine career-assist tool, while Classmates was just a way to get harassed. I have no doubt that Linkedin is just as profit-minded as Classmates, but I also have no doubt that Linkedin is smarter. By respecting its customers, Linkedin gains customer loyalty, which is worth a lot.
And so back to Debate Hub. People who watch C-SPAN are serious-minded politicos; it would be natural for them to be able to find likeminded souls on a C-SPAN-spawned site. Which is a lesson of the Net age: Media proliferation has turned us all into not only channel surfers, but also web surfers--if something bores us, we can switch immediately. So the answer, for each content provider, is to put up more material that holds people's interest for a longer time. That's stickiness. Social networking is just one more way to be sticky.
The cable companies continue to grope their way into content-providing and other forms of programming--curiously, Comcast even offers a "browser upgrade."
So don't be surprised if Debate Hub proves to be the thin edge of the wedge. If so, good! News junkies, including Cable Gamers, could use a good place to hang out online.
